Heavy showers throw Mumbai out of gear

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With 182mm rain within 15 hours, the first heavy spell helped Mumbai touch 75% – 369.4mm – of the average rain for June. The amount of rain is just 5mm short of that received in the suburbs, representative of the city, the first 27 days of June. The average rain for June is 493.1mm.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), between 8.30am and 11.30pm, the suburbs recorded 182mm rain, falling under the ‘very heavy’ rain category, while south Mumbai recorded only 42.9mm rain falling under the ‘moderate’ category. According to the weather department, 15.6mm to 64.4mm of rain is considered ‘moderate’, 64.5mm to 115.5mm ‘heavy’, 115.6mm to 204.4mm ‘very heavy’ and more than 204.5mm ‘extremely heavy’. While heavy rain was recorded in Palghar and Dahanu at 75mm, moderate showers were recorded at Alibaug (42.2mm) and Thane (24.4mm).

Rainfall across all seven lakes supplying drinking water to Mumbai stood at 209mm in Vihar, 143mm in Tulsi, 78mm in Middle Vaitarna, 69mm in Modak Sagar and 60mm in Tansa. “Mumbai experienced heavy to very heavy rain with isolated spells of extreme heavy rain, mostly within a nine-hour period, due to strong monsoon currents under weather systems issued under a pressure gradient combined with strong westerly winds,” said Shubhangi Bhute, scientist, IMD Mumbai. “Rainfall intensity witnessed on Friday is likely to reduce between Saturday and Sunday. However, a similar intensity can be expected on Saturday, with isolated heavy to very heavy rain spells.”

Data from the automatic weather stations across Mumbai from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) showed that the eastern suburbs recorded the highest rainfall on Friday at 120.47mm rain between 8am and 6pm, followed by the western suburbs at 90.27mm; the island city recorded 67.03mm. Maximum rain was recorded in Vikhroli at 176.5mm over a 12-hour period, followed by Kanjurmarg at 151.12mm, Marol at 147.8mm, and Andheri (West) at 145.05mm.

Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate professor, department of mechanical engineering and associate faculty, IDP Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay said that Powai recorded 236mm rain within six hours. “The low level westerly winds from Arabian Sea gained momentum and were able to push the cloud bands (formed as a result of an active offshore trough) from the sea to land. For the past few days, these cloud bands were hanging in the sea, and on Friday, the winds were able to push them to the land,” he said. “The overall intensity of rainfall will decrease from Saturday afternoon, and rainfall activity will remain restricted to intermittent light rain showers till July 3,” said Akshay Deoras, meteorologist and PhD researcher at the department of meteorology, University of Reading, UK. “The rainfall deficit of June in the suburbs is expected to decrease due to the ongoing active monsoon conditions, but there won’t be that significant reduction in deficit at Colaba.”

Friday’s showers paved the way for cool conditions in the city. The day temperature fell two degrees both in the suburbs and south Mumbai.

While maximum temperature in Santacruz was 29.2 °Celsius, 2.1 degrees below normal, Colaba recorded 28.7°C, 2.4 degrees below normal.